₦airaland Forum

FMDQ Group, a securities exchange and self-regulatory organization (SRO), faces a precipitous drop in trading volumes and revenue as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) moves to shift trading of its Fixed Income and Foreign Exchange (FX) products to its own internal trading platform.

In a letter to the Financial Markets Dealers Association (FMDA), dated September 29, 2025, seen by MoneyCentral, the CBN said it was commencing a series of operational changes to the Nigerian Fixed Income Market which will involve the change of the full oversight of the settlement process and trading platform to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).Investment Portfolio Tracker

“This transition will enable the CBN to assume direct responsibility for the management of the trading platform and handle end to end settlement activities under the Bank’s established system for financial markets transactions,” the CBN said in the letter signed by Okey Umeano, Acting Director, Financial Markets Department.

Secondary market activity for products traded and/or reported on the FMDQ Exchange grew by 86% in 2024, up to ₦461.34 trillion, from ₦248.66 trillion in 2023.

This growth was primarily driven by the Foreign Exchange (FX) segment (including spot and derivatives), accounting for 45% of total market turnover, with Spot FX alone growing by 283% year-on-year (YoY).

The Bills segment (comprising Nigerian Treasury Bills, CBN Open Market Operations Bills or OMO Bills, and CBN Special Bills) collectively contributed 22%.

That makes for a total of 67% of potential drop in FMDQ trading volume once the first phase of the CBN move goes live.

The CBN said the objective of its proposed reforms is to strengthen market integrity, streamline operations, and establish a unified regulatory framework that ensures end-to-end visibility and supervisory oversight of fixed income transactions.Investment Portfolio Tracker

The project is expected to be executed in stages and in close collaboration with all key stakeholders, according to the CBN.

Subject to satisfactory completion of the User Acceptance Testing (UAT) and pilot phase, all fixed income market activities will be migrated to the new settlement process on November 3, 2025.

The activation of the CBN-sponsored trading environment and migration of trading activities for Primary Dealers, Market Makers (PDMM), Pension Fund Administrators (PFA), and other authorized market participants is targeted for December 1, 2025.

The move is a major blow for the FMDQ which reported Group Profit Before Tax of ₦23.23 billion in 2024, representing a 65.54% increase from ₦14.03 billion recorded in 2023.

The Board recommended a cash dividend of ₦0.20 per share, totaling ₦5.20 billion, while revenue increased significantly by 50% to ₦51.41 billion from ₦34.29 billion in 2023, marking the highest level in the FMDQ Group’s history.

Those days seem to be over with the CBN move.Investment Portfolio Tracker

MoneyCentral reported earlier that the FMDQ was cashing out heavily from the CBN as about 67 percent of the total revenues of N31 billion earned in 2020 by FMDQ, were fees paid to the exchange by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

FMDQ Group Plc was making so much money that in 2024, its Board approved a stock award worth about N10.4 billion for outgoing Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Bola Onadele Koko, a massive payout meant to reward the pioneer CEO of the capital markets infrastructure firm for value created over time.

Mr. Onadele Koko may have just cashed out in time.

“The CBN acknowledges the pivotal roles of FMDA in developing Nigeria’s financial markets and expects your full cooperation in this process. We look forward to your continued partnership as we work together to deliver a more efficient, transparent and resilient fixed income market,” Umeano said in his letter.

ednut1:
In summary once you create a solution that makes so much money, Nigerian government go chook eyes

Laple0541:
Sincerely, this is the first time for a long time that we have people that have deep knowledge in finance issues on board.

I don’t know how they do this naira to dollar stuff, the naira keeps appreciating every day.

MCentral:
https://moneycentral.com.ng/exclusive/article/fmdq-faces-67-trading-volume-loss-as-cbn-shifts-to-internal-platform/

NaijaNaWaa:
The worst and most unqualified CBN governor ever. Just wait, when the hype is over and dust settles, the world would see the incompetence at the helm of CBN.

Laple0541:
Sincerely, this is the first time for a long time that we have people that have deep knowledge in finance issues on board.

I don’t know how they do this naira to dollar stuff, the naira keeps appreciating every day.

Vision101:
Check my earlier comments when Yemi Cardoso was appointed as CBN governor. People were writing all types of nonsense here. I know him closely and I worked under him closely when he was executive director at citizens bank and I was in a venture capital outfit. Yemi is good. The combination of Edu, Yemi and Tinubu is good team for our economy.

ideylaff:
Yemi Cadoso read public administration and he is a chartered accountant, globally accountants don’t run central banks.

Economist run most central banks globally

He previously led 3 banks to fail, so how competent is he? We just like to hype nonsense and back it with little or no evidence.


Running Lagos Budget is not the same as running a central bank, let’s keep sentiments aside

He is not the right man for the job, there is a lot of cover up going on. How can you say the economy is turned the corner when you still have high inflation. It’s the consumer price index you measure not high line statements Tinubu has been making

Where are the indices to show you the economy is on the upward curve

Back to this fixed income take away from FMDQ,


Most central banks do not directly run the entire fixed income market.
Globally, fixed income markets (gov’t bonds, corporate debt) are usually operated by exchanges, clearing houses, or dealer-to-dealer platforms, with central banks participating mainly as issuers (of government debt) and regulators/participants.


Globally: Central banks operate settlement systems and regulate markets, but trading is left to exchanges and dealers.

Nigeria’s new model: CBN will control both trading and settlement, which is a rare global precedent , it significantly centralises oversight, price discovery, and liquidity management under the central bank.

What may be gaps

Trading platform technology : Running an exchange-grade auction and secondary trading platform requires robust systems (like MTS in Europe or Tradeweb in the US). Historically, Nigeria has relied on dealer/broker networks and not centralised electronic platforms.

Market operations skill set : Regulators typically supervise, while exchanges/market operators specialise in liquidity, price discovery, and matching engines. CBN would need to either buy, license, or build this capability.

Neutrality Globally, central banks avoid being both referee and player. Running the market directly could raise concerns about neutrality, transparency, and conflict of interest.


United States
U.S. Treasury
Dealer-to-dealer, platforms (Tradeweb, Bloomberg, BrokerTec)
Fedwire Securities Service (Federal Reserve)
Runs settlement, regulates, conducts open market ops. Does not run trading.


Eurozone (EU)
National Debt Agencies (e.g. Germany Finanzagentur, France AFT)
MTS, Euronext, OTC
TARGET2-Securities (T2S) (ECB)
ECB runs settlement infrastructure, not trading.


United Kingdom
UK Debt Management Office (DMO)
London Stock Exchange (LSE), MTS, OTC dealers
Euroclear UK & Ireland (CREST)
Bank of England regulates, conducts market ops. Does not run trading.